On American Soil
by AspiringWriterGirl
Summary: Inspired by the Game, you decide how the story goes... Just another town overrun by zombies, just another group of survivors for Chloe and her sister Sadie to join, but what if these people used untraditional survival techniques, is it still okay


Disclaimer: I don't own any of The Walking Dead world, only the characters in this story and the plot

A/N: So I recently started watching The Walking Dead from the very beginning and wanted to do my own little side story – but I have decided to take a little inspiration from the download game where you decide how the story goes, so at the end of the chapter, there will be a decision that I want you guys to leave any answer in a quick little sneaky review

This will also have a sister story taking place in U.K which will have the same decision making style that this one will have

Let's see how this goes!

 **Chapter 01 – Chloe Hunter: Day 7**

"Chloe!" my little sister squealed, peeping out of the gap in the curtains.

It was dusty in the house and electricity was nothing more than a figment of my imagination in this neighbourhood. My sister and I had hidden upstairs at our family home for the past week or so. Since they came onto the streets, I had lost all track of time and just got through each day and night. All of the time we spent waiting, I had been mentally preparing myself for the day where we would leave. Originally, I had planned to leave with a guy who I was friends with in high school, but I wasn't ready in time and he had to leave without us.

"Sadie – come away from the window," I whispered, ushering her towards me at the bottom of the stairs. "We have to hide upstairs until they pass, they always do."

"What if they don't this time?"

"They will, don't worry."

I had no idea if they would or not, but every single time we had spotted one of them, Sadie and I stay in my bedroom upstairs because if Sadie couldn't see or hear them, she wasn't scared. She would listen to a CD in the corner watching me as I knelt by the window, peering out to see the dead walk by.

Only a month ago, I became Sadie's guardian when our mother was caught in a hit and run incident. The doctors rushed her off to the hospital, but she left us on the way there. I became her legal guardian when our father left us nearly a year ago, shortly after Sadie's third birthday. Since then, the social was visiting me until I was ready to become her legal guardian.

"Come on, slowly up the stairs. We'll go into my room, okay?"

She slowly came over to me and we walked up the stairs, missing out the ones that we knew would creak. That was one of the things I liked about the house – when I was younger, I knew that no one could ever break into the house and get upstairs before someone realised. In my teenage years, I had developed a knack for creeping up the stairs undetected whenever I came home late and couldn't climb in through the window, and Sadie had learnt it from me.

In my room, I gave her the portable CD player and settled her in the corner. Just as she was about to put the headphones on, there was a thump at the front door.

"Shit," I muttered under my breath.

Thoughts rushed through my mind, and I began to think what was going to happen between me and Sadie. We had spent nearly a week at our house and we were fast running out of food – it was hard enough trying to cook whatever was in the freezer because it was defrosting. But to have to cook it over a trangia was another story. Before Dad left, he had taught me how to use it, which was fortunate for us, but perishable items were becoming sprinkled with mould that looked like light bruises. When that happened, I had to leave it in a separate cover, worried that if I left it outside, it would only attract them.

"Chloe…" Sadie whimpered, cowering in the corner. "Make it go away, make it go away!"

Dropping to my knees beside her, I picked her up and gently put her inside of my wooden wardrobe. "Please, stay in here until I say it's safe to come out. Sshh," I whispered, putting the headphones on over her ears.

"No," she squeaked, clinging to my arm.

"Sadie. Sadie, stop it." I prised her fingers off my jacket and crouched down at the top of the stairs to see the door.

Through the gaps in the wooden planks I had put across the outside of the door, I could see our wannabe houseguest's hand tapping the wood with a floppy arm. Thinking that the dead man walking was already pre-occupied, I took my chance to pack a bag of supplies, mainly clothes for the pair of us. Socks, underwear, tops and jeans – all part of the list I had been preparing in my head in case I had to leave. A selection of toiletries for us to share. I grabbed the emergency bag containing a selection of food that would last us a while and stuffed it into the bag. Though it was unnecessarily big, I grabbed the family photo album because I couldn't bare to leave it behind.

Some new magazines for my gun.

Holstered in its holder, the gun hadn't been used yet, but I knew how to use it. For the past week, I had it on my belt for emergencies. In the past, me and my friends would go up the hillside to do some target practice. We had nicked the necessary equipment from an abandoned shooting range in the area, so we both knew it was authentic and real.

Then there was a sound I never thought I'd hear. It was the sound of my phone getting a call. Scrambling towards the sound of my ringtone, I knew I had alerted the dead person at the front door that the house was occupied. That fresh meat was inside.

"Sebastian? Is that you?" I whispered, kneeling down beside the bedside table, feeling as if there was a great weight pressing down on my chest.

"Yeah – it's me… We're on our way- jumpstarted a car. You have to get out of the house now."

It felt so good to hear his voice. I hadn't heard anyone else's voice in nearly two weeks.

"I can't- there's one at the front door. I can't get us out."

 _We could leave out the back, but would Sebastian and his friends be able to get there? Unless Sadie and I jumped the fence and went up the side of the house parallel to ours and onto a totally different road._

"You have to get out, we're literally on your road now…"

"Well turn around," I said aggressively, grabbing my rucksack off the floor and threading my arms through the straps. "Because there is no way I can get the both of us out of the house without alerting them. But if you go the- to the next road over, then we'll meet you there…"

"Okay, do it, do it now… We'll be there."

I pocketed my phone as the glass smashed downstairs, they were getting through already. Without even thinking, I threw the doors of the wardrobe opened swiftly, only to hear my sister's scream fill the house.

"Shh, shut up, it's me!" I snapped, pulling her out of the house and into the spare bedroom.

Pushing the window open wide, I began to climb out. My feet touched the grey slated roof. I beckoned my sister to climb through the window and as she was in the process of climbing through, I could hear the snapping of rotten wood. It was getting through the front door now.

"Quick!" I snapped, taking hold of her arm and pulling her through the window. "Trust me, I'll catch you." Sitting down on the roof, I slid down and tumbled agilely off the roof, rolling along the ground and jumping back up onto my feet. "Come on!" I whispered quietly, holding my arms up ready to catch her.

The drag of her feet told me she was terrified. She was shuffling to the edge of the roof where there was maybe over a seven foot drop. Her feet dangled over the edge and I could hear her call my name. If I was taller, I could have reached her feet.

"Let go!" I shouted, not caring about attracting attention. "Come on…"

Sadie looked down at me with bright blue eyes. "I'm scared…"

"I know," I replied feebly, feeling my heart pound as I heard the groaning sound of a dead person walking towards me around the side of the house. "I'll catch you, I promise."

There was a ripping sound as her coat was torn down the back and she dropped down over the edge. I just about managed to catch her before hauling her towards the fence. Leaning back against it, I locked my fingers together ready for Sadie's foot. My little sister held tightly onto my shoulders as she prepared herself, I braced against the wall.

"Come on, Sadie," I whispered, lifting her up so that she could sit on top of the fence.

The dead was walking towards me with a limp in its left leg and whilst I had killed one before, it wasn't something I wanted to do again right now. Not when it would waste a bullet. So I began to panic and knew I couldn't jump over the wall without a run up. Shrugging the rucksack off, I tossed it over the fence.

"Sadie, go over the fence!" I snapped aggressively.

I tried to jump up and grab the fence, but I didn't get enough of a chance to get enough grip on the top of it and ended up scrapping my palm on the rough wood. Splinters embedded themselves into the skin of my hands.

"Chloe!" screamed my little sister. She was still sitting on top of the fence, but her gaze was fixed on something behind me.

Desperation was coursing through me and I jumped up once again, scrambling up it with my feet kicking out at the wood. With a sharp stabbing pain across my arms and elbow in particular, I lifted myself up just so that I could see over the fence. Sadie had been caught by Sebastian and was now being led away to their pickup by another of Sebastian's group.

Growling a little, I was so far from climbing over the fence when my right foot was grabbed. I whimpered and kicked out with the other leg as the snarling got louder and sounded like there were more of them.

"Sebastian… Please help…" I said, reaching over the fence for someone to give me a hand.

With a look of worry in his eyes, Sebastian vaulted up onto the fence, swinging one leg over to help. The other guy had always gotten partly over the fence and there was a swift chopping sound that lead to the grip on my shoe loosening.

A rush of relief waved over my body as the two guys grabbed me and pulled me over the fence in an instant. The three of us fell to the grass on the other side.

"What- who are- what's the rush?" I asked, feeling the breath being knocked out of me from the sudden running.

Before I even had a chance to say hello, Sebastian darted away.

"Don't worry… Get in." Sebastian climbed into the passenger side of the pickup.

The other guy leapt up onto the back of the pickup and reached out for me. "Come on, take my hand."

"Thanks…" I whispered, smiling as I took his hand.

Once I was safely on the pickup, it sped away from the street. Leaving behind my childhood home was tough and I knew that it was unlikely that I would ever see it again. What made it worse was the fact that Sadie was completely unaware of what us driving away really meant. I peered through the window to see Sadie staring at the windscreen in front of her. Turning back, I ran my hands through my hair and wondered what me and my sister were going to do.

After an awkwardly long moment of silence, I knew I had to say something to make conversation.

"What's it like? Out there," I asked the guy who had just saved my life.

"What do you mean?" he asked, still watching the road fade away in the distance.

"I've, well I've never really left the house since… Well, this is the first time, and I didn't think Sebastian was going to come back for me," I explained, feeling my cheeks flush with colour. "Sebastian always seemed to care about me, and not just like a sibling, but more than that."

"Okay, erm, oh- well…" he began to murmur.

"What's wrong?" I asked shyly. "I'm Chloe, by the way."

"Jason." His smile was so captivating and charming that he seemed even more so than Sebastian.

"My mum always liked the name Jason-" I inadvertently said the first thing that came to mind. "But what is life like outside of the city? Like I said, I've been in my house since they started coming out into the streets."

"They? They are walkers. They are called walkers… And, life outside the city is different. Life has changed, but you'll be okay now. I'm sure of it, because now you're with us."

"Us?" I replied, wrapping one arm around my knees whilst still holding on for dear life as the car hurtled around the streets.

"Yeah, there is me, Sebastian, Mila, Mackenzie and Aanya – now there is you and your little sister. We're heading South to see if there's safety on the other side of the border. In Mexico. Not that I think there will be that much of a border left now." Jason's eyes were so blue that I could have stared at them all day, if that wasn't weird.

"Sounds like a neat little group." I paused, instinctively grabbing hold of his arm when the pickup turned around a corner onto a small dusty road. "Sorry." I let go after realising that his arm was quite muscly.

"Don't worry – so you and Sebastian, huh?"

"Well, kinda…"

I told Jason how me and Sebastian were sort of like a couple, but neither one of us would make the move and ask for our relationship to be official. How we had grown seriously intimate- much to the shock of my mother, but when the walkers flooded the town, Sebastian's family fled in an instant.

"He promised he would come back for me, and he did." Whilst Jason never mentioned anything about Sebastian's family, I didn't want to ask.

"Yeah, seems like he did…" Jason murmured, but something was clearly wrong.

I couldn't shake the feeling that he knew something that he didn't want to let on that he knew about, but Sadie knocking on the glass in drivers momentarily distracted me.

"Hey baby," I said, smiling at her.

Ever since the walkers came to the streets, I had worried how a six year old was going to cope in this world, and I was faced with sadness. A sadness because my dream to have a family in a pretty home and such felt further away than it had ever been. I didn't feel comfortable knowing that this would be the world I would have to bring my child up in and then leave my child in. Let alone the world I had to bring Sadie up in.

"You coming?" Sebastian was looking me as I stayed rooted to the spot in the back of the pickup.

I jumped down from the pickup and looked at the campsite. To be honest, I would have been better off just staying at home and making my own camp.

So I faced myself with a choice…

 _Do I stay with the group, or do I take Sadie and go elsewhere?_

 **Thoughts from AspiringWriterGirl = So that is the first chapter of this American story, and the decision is as follows. Should Chloe:-**

 **Stay with the group that she has been rescued  
Or should she:  
B) Take Sadie and find her own camp**


End file.
